Koforidua, Nov. 27, GNA - The Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board, Mr Kwame Dattey, has charged Polytechnic managers not to promote secretarial and management training at the expense of technical and vocational education, since such a situation could harm Ghana's development agenda.

He stressed the urgent need for them to re-tool the traditional technical institutes and re-design their programmes to ensure that they complement the Polytechnics' effort, aimed at driving Ghana's economy to an industrial and a middle-level income country by 2015. Addressing fresh students of the Koforidua Polytechnic on Saturday, Mr Dattey posited that Polytechnics must focus on recruiting their products from technical institutes in view of evidence that indicated that many students presently enrolled in Polytechnics do not do so as a matter of choice.

860 students, of which 328 are females, took the matriculation oath to be admitted as Junior Members of the Polytechnic to pursue the Higher National Diploma (HND) and other professional programmes. They were selected from a total of 1,059 who had applied.

"It should not be said or assumed that the polytechnics have become a second option" to other tertiary courses, the Executive Secretary cautioned, and said that, there was an obvious need to re-orient Polytechnic students to appreciate the relevance of the programmes they opted for instead of abandoning their studies midstream.

As a way out, Mr Dattey called for the strengthening of the competencies of technical school products, especially in the fields of English Language, Mathematics and the Physical Sciences to give them adequate grounding for subsequent Polytechnic work.

Mr Dattey also spoke about the need to improve on facilities in the both technical institutes and the polytechnics, as well as ensuring that advance training for technical tutors remained grounded in practical, rather than theoretical training.

The Executive Secretary cautioned the general public to guard "against deception by shadowy groups" which charge exorbitant fees for programmes they neither have the legal backing nor professional competence to mount.

In his matriculation address, Mr Samuel Okorley, acting Principal of the Polytechnic, said the school was making some strides in infrastructure developments, citing the completion of ten staff bungalows and a multi-complex administration block, which is nearing completion.

He announced the introduction of new programmes including Cookery, Computer Science and part-time courses in Purchasing and Supply and asked the public to take advantage of them. He warned that the school authorities would not countenance unruly students but would be supportive of students that apply themselves diligently to their studies and respect school regulations.